Rail First Asset Management

Rail First Asset Management (RailFirst), formerly known as CFCL Australia (CFCLA, Chicago Freight Car Leasing), is an Australian rolling stock leasing company operating in the rail freight market. It leases assets to a number of private rail operators, predominantly on the defined interstate rail network.

Though primarily based in New South Wales, RailFirst's assets can be found operating in most Australian states and with all major train operating companies. It has rolling stock on both long-term lease to those companies as well as assets that are available for spot hire. It is owned by DIF Capital Partners and Amber Infrastructure.

Rail First has workshops in Islington Adelaide and Goulburn in regional NSW where it maintains its owned rollingstock in house and the rollingstock of third parties.

History


Rail First Asset Management was originally established in 1998 by the American Chicago Freight Car Leasing Company as CFCL Australia. The company's first contract was for the supply of a small fleet of radio-controlled automated ballast hoppers to Westrail. During November 1998, the company acquired its first locomotives in the form of 13 EL class locomotives, which were obtained from Australian National. In 2000, it diversified into wagons.

In March 2009, the Marubeni Corporation purchased a 49% stake in CFCL Australia. In November 2012, CFCL Australia unveiled its first infrastructure train in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. By October 2014, the company had locomotives operating construction trains on the Roy Hill railway and on the Hamersley & Robe River railway.

Throughout the 2010s, there was a significant growth in demand from the intermodal sector; in response, the majority of CFCL Australia's wagons were engaged in use by various clients in this sector, typically under wet leasing arrangements suitable for companies that may not have traditionally been active on the railways before. To better suit customer demands, the company's management were looking at options to obtain additional 40-foot wagons, one such proposal being the shortening of existing 60-foot wagons. Company officials forecast demand for intermodal rolling stock would continue to grow as additional freight terminals come online across Australia, including several schemes in the Sydney basin and New South Wales, as well as the Inland Rail programme.

During 2016, Marubeni decided to relinquish its stake in CFCL Australia and moving to 15% stake in CF Asia Pacific. As of January 2020, Marubeni holds no interest in either entity. During January 2020, CFCL Australia was acquired by Anchorage Capital Partners; one roughly year later, the company was rebranded as Rail First Asset Management in 2021.

DIF Capital Partners and Amber Infrastructure Group acquired Rail First in December 2022, since this change of ownership new 4400hp AC traction locomotives have been ordered from UGL (GE Wabtec) with 26 to be in service by December 2024.

Rail First (previously CFCL Australia)
In September 2010, CFCLA took out a lease on the Goulburn Railway Workshops to maintain both its locomotive and wagon fleets with the facility named the Australian Horse Power Service Centre. As well as maintaining its own fleet, Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia also perform maintenance for other operators including Qube Logistics. It also maintains locomotives at Islington Railway Workshops in Adelaide.

During 2013, CF Rail Services was established, bringing together the Australian Horse Power Service Centre and took over Bluebird Rail Operations engineering business at Islington. The CF Rail Services name was dropped in 2017 to consolidate the name as Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia, also known as CFCLA. During the early 2020s, the company was working to expand its workshop capacity to meet customer demand, particularly for fast turnaround times.

Fleet
Initially, RailFirst's locomotive fleet comprised second-hand locomotives that were no longer required by their original rail operators; some of these would be re-manufactured units or had undergone life-extending overhauls. Over time, the company has orientated towards purchasing new locomotives instead. In May 2012, the company placed one of its first orders for ten MP33C new-build locomotives with Wabtec subsidiary MotivePower.

The RailFirst diesel locomotive fleet is made up of a variety of different classes of units, ranging from modern high power units to older mainline locomotives. By February 2020, the company had opted to permanently withdraw all of its older smaller locomotive. By March 2020, the company's inventory contained 78 locomotives:

Most locomotives in the fleet are named after famous Australian racehorses.

RailFirst fleet consist of 1,200 freight wagons of a variety of types including grain hoppers, bulk mineral hoppers, and intermodal flat wagons of varying lengths and carrying capabilities. RailFirst wagons generally have four-character identification codes starting with the letter C.